Disclaimer: not mine

Good news, I finally have full range of motion back in the knee I had surgery on last May. Just have to keep working to rebuild strength now. Definitely a much longer recovery, though the break for the other surgery in my physio schedule likely hasn't helped either.

Somehow, despite adding the doc a few days ago, the chapter wasn't posted, oops. posting now

Chapter 13

Sora ducked behind a wall even as Feron opened fire, covering Liara as she bolted to join them. "Well, I think it's safe to say we're on the right track," she pointed out, getting a glare from her sister.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" she snapped, leaning around the corner to fire off a Singularity.

"They've got a ship," Sora grimaced as she checked her omni-tool, "we can't let them take off until we can check it."

"It's too dangerous," Feron argued.

"And if John is on board we will lose him if they take off," Liara argued.

Sora was worried for her sister; she was desperate and that was not good in a fight.

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Kaidan leant against the wall, staring out into space. He'd adjusted to the changes his new implant had caused, working hard to re-hone his abilities. His promotion still didn't feel real, Staff Commander, and now he was being given a squad of other biotics to train. It was…crazy.

Being totally out of contact with everyone from the Normandy wasn't something he liked, but orders were orders. He missed the crew, missed being part of their team. He even missed arguing with Pressly…and he remembered the kid the other man had mentored. He hoped he was alright and dealing with Pressly's death aright. Unfortunately, he'd never told Kaidan the kids name so he couldn't even look him up himself. He knew he'd been wounded before the battle of the Citadel and Pressly had been relieved after, because his ship hadn't made it. That wasn't enough to find out who he was though.

He missed Shepard…John, they'd been friends practically since they met. His death hurt, why hadn't he stayed back too? Between them they could have gotten Joker out quicker, before that last attack.

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Miranda nodded as she read the latest news, the T'Soni sisters had a credible lead but they had to act fast so they'd already left, with the Drell. She wasn't so sure he wasn't playing both sides, but by the time she could send anyone after them, it'd be over. Dr T'Soni was being drive by grief but the younger sister seemed to have a level head on her shoulders…and rumour said she'd been undergoing Commando training since the Battle of the Citadel.

The labs were prepped, all she could do was wait. Yamada had settled nicely into his role as security chief and didn't seem aware that he was being singled out for far more medical appointments then everyone else which was good. She doubted he'd agree to what the Illusive Man wanted with those samples. She had to admit, she wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of such a drug, but she also couldn't deny the good uses it could be put to. Pacifying crowds of rioters, ensuring safer prisoner transports, there were many times that it could save time and lives. But the potential for misuse was big.

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Riku checked over the shielding unit in his armour. Cerberus splurged for its officers, the armour was better than what the Alliance had supplied him with, but it could still use some tweaking, upgrades never hurt. It was busy work, to keep his mind off things.

He'd finally found out what Project Lazarus was and…it was crazy. But if it did work…the idea they could bring Commander Shepard back after he'd been spaced and then gone through re-entry… how many lives could such tech save? But the cost had to be astronomical, so it'd likely never be available to the public. Or to anyone not deemed important enough…like Navigators. Besides, he'd been to the funeral, he doubted even Lazarus could fix what little there'd been left after having a control panel blow up and then the ship breaking up around him on re-entry. Though he did wonder, where did Cerberus get the funds for such impossible projects?

Being on a station was very different, he was used to life aboard a ship now, but it did make a nice change in some ways. And he thought he was making friends with some of the others, though the science crew were a bit weird. Then again they were working on something to bring someone back to life, you had to be weird to even think of something like that.

His dreams had begun getting intense, if only he could remember them once awake. Someone, a boy, yelling his name…maybe someone from that club, before the drugs had gotten to them? But why would he be dreaming of that now? Sometimes he felt cold in them, like he was surrounded by darkness…he hated them. He could talk to someone, but he never talked about that place, he hoped Cerberus hadn't been able to get to that file, surely even they couldn't break into something so classified? He didn't want anyone to know how weak he'd been, what he'd let them do to him. Never again.

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Feron covered the door as the sisters approached the stasis pod. He did not wish to look inside, whatever was in there, it would not be pretty, not with the reports on how Shepard had died. But Liara would not be dissuaded by either of them, and so Sora was looking as well, to support her. It must be nice, to have someone who would always have your back, he had no siblings, no family left now at all.

He was honestly surprised Sora hadn't shot him for betraying them. She did not seem the type to let such a thing go so easily, especially with her sister involved. But once they uncovered why the Shadow Broker wanted Shepard's body, he could no longer work for them. The Collectors were everyone's enemy, even if the various governments brushed off their existence…much the same as they were doing the Reapers.

Now they were waiting for a Cerberus pickup. He wasn't sure but Liara believed they could do it, could bring Shepard back. She must really have loved him to be willing to go to such lengths to get him back.

He heard the soft gasp of horror and grief, but did not turn, they deserved privacy.

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Riku stared at the mangled mess on the table, that was Shepard? How could anyone bring that back? Surely he was completely brain dead…deprived of oxygen and then going through re-entry…they were lucky there'd been anything left to retrieve at all, and his armour was the reason for that. Despite the air hose being cut, the barriers had held up reasonably well…enough to protect the important bits anyway. His limbs were another matter entirely, Riku knew how painful that was and how uncomfortable the attachment of even a cloned attachment was, but the Commander would probably get to sleep through all that…if they could get his brain going again somehow. None of this would matter if they couldn't, sure they could shove a VI in his head to run the body, but that wouldn't be Shepard.

"Quite the mess, isn't he?" Wilson stepped up beside him.

"You really think you can bring him back? He's got to be brain damaged, brain dead," Riku shook his head.

"That's the whole point to this project. We'll get it done."

"Good luck." They were really going to need it. He felt sick just looking at the corpse.

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Liara ducked, sending a Shockwave at the mercenaries. Ever since Cerberus had collected John's stasis pod they'd had the Shadow Broker's mercenaries on them. Apparently they'd made him angry, she was happy with that. Angry people made mistakes.

She could hear the steady fire from Feron's pistol, the heavier shots from Sora's assault rifle joining in. She drew her own pistol and began firing.

"Feron!" Sora yelled, and Liara turned to see him collapse, a mercenary leaning over him. her sister leapt over cover, biotically charging at the merc. She slammed into him, sending him flying, and then a barrier went up around them, Sora kneeling to apply medi-gel, and Liara began shooting again, giving cover.

Sora could only hold a barrier so long, longer since her return to Thessia, but there was still a limit. And with the number of mercenaries...she heard Sora cry out as the barrier collapsed, thankfully she was mostly behind cover.

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With Feron down the odds were not good; he was healing but too slowly. She peaked out past her cover, firing a few shots to keep an advancing soldier back. All of this because of Shepard? Or…she glanced at Feron, was some of it because he betrayed the Broker? Either way, they weren't going to abandon him, not when he'd helped them. She raised her rifle, opening fire again, it'd take a while before she could get another barrier up.

"Leave me," the gasp had her looking down to see Feron's eyes barely open.

"No," she told him.

"Want…me, save Lia'a," he coughed, and that didn't sound good.

He needed a medical facility, but there were none close that she would trust. The citadel was the closest and likely too far. They had no one to call on for help, the Normandy crew scattered far and wide now and she wouldn't trust Cerberus despite their help retrieving Shepard and work to somehow bring him back one day.

She looked over at her sister, seeing her eyes go wide, and looked back at their enemy. That...that was not good.

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He had to leave, they wouldn't leave him behind, he could see that. He didn't understand, he'd betrayed them several times, and yet still they protected him. With Sora distracted he began to move, dragging himself across the ground blindly. He just had to get far enough away and the mercenaries would do the rest. Sure enough he soon felt rough hands on him, yanking him up, heard the sisters yelling and then everything faded to black.

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Riku glanced at the information he'd been given and then looked around. He couldn't believe it, why hadn't Hackett intervened for the man? And…there he was, sitting alone in a corner, crutches leaning beside him. Riku slipped through the other patrons until he reached the table. "May I join you?"

"Not looking for company," the older man snapped.

"Not even one with a job offer?" Riku asked, and that got his attention.

The man everyone called Joker stared at him before nodding so Riku sat down. "So who are you? And why do you look familiar?"

"Riku Yamada, I came aboard the Normandy once when you were at the Citadel."

"Right…yeah, that hair's pretty distinctive. You came to see….Pressly."

Riku nodded. "He saved my life when I was a kid," he admitted.

"Sorry," Joker grimaced. "In case you missed it, I resigned."

"You're not the only one," Riku assured him. "I left after the Normandy…" he shrugged slightly. "I have a job offer for you, the ship's still under construction and you'd be able to give your input. As well as state of the art, experimental treatment. Not a cure but you should be able to ditch those," he motioned to the crutches. Apparently in working to bring Shepard back, they'd been forced to investigate a lot of avenues, one of which could help improve the pilots' mobility.

"What's the catch?" he asked warily.

"No catch," he denied, shaking his head. "The pay's good, it includes accommodation and supplies. And…the chance to work with Shepard again."

Rage flashed across his face and he leant closer, glaring. "Commander Shepard is dead," he snapped.

"His body was retrieved and the scientists are sure they can bring him back."

"Who the hell has that kind of resources outside the Alliance? Why would they even try?" he demanded.

"Cerberus," Riku answered.

"Get out."

Riku sighed and slid an OSD over to him. "Take it, read it over. You've only ever dealt with rogue elements. The real Cerberus is very different," he told him. "I'll be here a few days, take your time." He stood and left, not wanting to push.

He wasn't sure why they wanted to recruit the man; sure he was an excellent pilot but there were a lot of excellent pilots out there who'd follow orders without as much backtalking. And they wouldn't need the expensive medical help either. But Riku kind of hoped he took the job.

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Garrus stared at the form; he knew his father would not be happy, but…he couldn't do it anymore. He'd learnt so much on board the Normandy, seen so much. He could do more good outside of C-Sec then within it. He signed and then sent the papers before he could talk himself out of it again. Now he just had to decide where to go and find a team to help him.

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Liara looked around curiously, she'd never been to Illium before, and so she followed Sora. Her sister had come with their mother while she was in her guard. It was impressive but she'd done her research, the glittering surface hid a lot. Which made it perfect for her purpose. She was becoming good at finding information, perhaps even better at it than she'd been at archaeology which was sad.

Feron…she had sworn to find out what had happened to him which meant getting into the Shadow Broker's networks without a source who once worked for him. The only way to do that was as an information broker herself. Setting up in competition with the mysterious figure was dangerous but surely it would also help John once he was back. She hated that Feron'd been right, since that last fight they'd barely seen any of the Broker's people.

She was also going to dig into Cerberus more, while the agents they had met had appeared genuine, she wasn't so sure about the rest of the organisation.

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Joker watched the news, another human colony was gone, no SOS, no sign of attack, nothing. Just every colonist suddenly vanished and this wasn't the first time. That was weird and definitely not good.

"The Illusive Man suspects the Collectors," Riku murmured as he joined him.

"The Collectors?" he asked in confusion; he'd heard rumours of them for years but nothing that said they'd hit colonies or that they had the numbers to do so. He was glad his home colony was safely away from the Traverse so not at risk. But still, Collectors?

"The Shadow Broker wanted Shepard's body to sell to them, we don't know why they wanted him. The T'Soni sisters helped retrieve his stasis capsule from the Broker's men."

Liara and Sora were involved with Cerberus? That didn't make any sense…except Liara had been involved with the Commander. Did she believe they could bring him back?

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Riku was content to let the other man fly them, they were heading for a different base, not wanting anyone possibly keeping an eye on the old Normandy crew to track them back to Lazarus. Joker hadn't signed on, not yet, but he'd agreed to listen. If he did sign on, then the doctors could begin work on him while he helped the engineers working on the SR-2.

He'd seen some of the specs and they looked good, he wouldn't mind serving on the ship himself once it was complete. He also knew that construction must have begun not long after work on the original Normandy. So what had been the original plan for the ship? Had it simply ben that the Illusive Man wanted the best and most advanced ships possible or was it something else? Not that it mattered anymore.

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Miranda stared at the body on the operating table, it wasn't really recognisable as Shepard, even after months of work. They were using a mix of cloning as well as cybernetics to slowly rebuild his body but the true test would be his brain. She had wanted to add in a control chip of some kind but the Illusive Man had said no, he wanted the real Shepard back. If it came down to it, there was that drug so long as the scientists could fully crack it.

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He inhaled deeply, watching as the first ad for the Andromeda Initiative went live. Good. That was one project he no longer needed to watch; he'd already inserted several operatives. While part of him wanted to go, to see another galaxy, it wasn't possible due to the work he still had left.

Project Lazarus was coming along, slower than he would have preferred and it was definitely going to go over budget, but it would all be worth it. They needed Shepard, he had a way of uniting people into a common cause that could not be underestimated. That was above and beyond his combat abilities.

They were getting closer to a viable product from the tests on Yamada which was good. There would be a lot of panic as the Collectors continued their work, people would need to be kept calmer. And when the Reapers arrived…calm, docile, refugees would be so much easier to transport and protect. Hopefully in defeating the Collectors they could buy themselves several more years at least.

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Sora rested her rifle against the railing, lining up the shot, and then fired. She was Liara's bodyguard now; she had sent in her resignation to Thessia months ago. They had not been happy and she knew the Matriarchs were watching them closer thanks to mother. Still, staying with Liara was the right thing to do. Her combat skills had come a long way since they had left for Therum what felt like a lifetime ago, but she still got too caught up in her work. Which was why Sora was on the roof taking out an assassin before he could get near her sister.

She didn't like shooting someone in cold blood, combat was different, but he had been hired to kill them. She missed trading playful jibes with Garrus as they picked targets form vantage spots. She'd had a message a few weeks back, he'd ended up on Omega to try and deal with some of the crime there. Sora had sent back a warning about Aria.

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Steven studied the reports, frowning. Why were the Blood Pack attacking an established colony like Fehl Prime? It didn't make any sense, and surely they didn't have the resources to be behind the disappearances of the other three colonies. It was times like this he really missed having the Normandy and Shepard at hand.

He could see that Alenko was slowly being pushed to becoming his replacement. He'd gotten very lucky with his surgery on Thessia, no longer having migraines was very helpful. The biotic squad he'd been given was proving very useful too, though they hadn't had too many missions yet, focused on training and teamwork.

He had tried to keep track of the Normandy crew and the Alliance members were mostly easy, unless they were pulled for classified work that he wasn't cleared for. The alien members were harder. Wrex and Tali had returned to their respective homes and there was no real news on them. Garrus had left C-Sec a few months ago and then vanished, hopefully not because he was dead. The T'Soni sisters were interesting, their names had popped up a lot for a while, usually due to being in conflict with mercenaries, then they'd vanished for a while but now they appeared to have set up on Illium with Dr T'Soni shifting her work to information brokering, but why?

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He had to be insane, it was the only thing that vaguely explained what he was doing, trusting Cerberus. Joker lay on the table, watching the scientists bustle around, prepping for the first surgery. They were going to physically reinforce his skeleton and it scared him but it all seemed sound. There was gene therapy involved as well, strengthening his whole system. It'd be nice to be able to get around without breaking his foot every time he stubbed his toe.

A mask was settled over his face and he knew it was too late to change his mind as his eyelids grew heavy.

TBC…

So Shepard was out for 2yrs, we've just barely tipped into the beginning of the 2nd year.